My Bloody Valentine - MBV

Iíve been listening to this intently for the past week and can honestly say itís the best album Iíve heard this year and probably the best non-metal album in the last decade. At the very least itís well worth a listen if you were even remotely a fan of Loveless.

Initial impressions:

Itís an aesthetic continuation from Loveless. A bit cleaner, more spacious but still very raw analogue sounding production.

Song structures are like expanded, drawn out versions of those found on Loveless

Less pop structure. More of a conscious approach to ambient music (in a style vaguely reminiscent of the other great shoegaze band, Slowdive).

Taken as a whole the album isnít quite as powerful as Loveless, but certain songs are in fact superior.

They still have the wonderful celtic/gaelic melodic idiom.

Ambient hallucinogenic approach to drumming forms the support structure for multiple layers of guitars, synth and noise.

The latter half of the album loses strength by excessive experimentation. It would have been cool to conclude the journey with an epic piece that recaps the first half of the album.

think chunks of this album are absolutely brilliant - and strongly disagree with what you said about the latter half of the album as I feel that is where Shields really distinguishes himself. there are moments of ponderousness, and there will be criticism from hipster circles that the band didn't "evolve" enough, but overall Shields delivered something credible.

to me this song is what every recent black metal band has been trying (and failing miserably) to achieve:

strongly disagree with what you said about the latter half of the album as I feel that is where Shields really distinguishes himself.

I might be wrong about the second half and your're certainly not the first person I've come across who thinks this. Actually I can't say it's bad, just a bit noisier and bouncier than one might predict, more beat-centric. I guess the two halves make sense when viewed in context of the intended vinyl release.

I saw these guys and gals play live recently and it was unreal. Most of the setlist was from Loveless. They only played one song off of MBV. It was extremely loud. Felt like being inside a cocoon or a tornado, one or the other.